Unfortunately, Zlotowski regularly stops scenes as they get started. That teasing approach at least makes sense in early scenes with Ali, where Rachel’s untidy nature is heavily suggested during her relationship’s honeymoon phase. Zlotowski cuts away from an intimate moment when Rachel says, “I don’t take the pill.” Then Ali covers them both with a blanket after reassuring Rachel that “There are other ways.” Soon after, Zlotowski ostentatiously pulls her camera around the corner from her characters when they, seated on a bathroom floor, bluntly prescribe each other’s hang-ups—“You’re an idealist, and I’m a pragmatist”; no, no, “you’re serene, and I’m dissatisfied”—before brushing off their musings by admitting that “we’re also a bit drunk.”
Zlotowski’s fussiness eventually feels like a defining feature of Rachel’s story. A handful of song cues, from the repetition of Doris Day’s melancholic “Again” to the frankly overbearing needle-drop of Jackson Browne’s “Cocaine,” only adds to that impression. Zlotowski treats her characters with kid gloves, as if making an object lesson of how she presents her characters’ lives without resorting to hackneyed contrivances or emotional shorthand. A few vignettes end with a watery camera iris in on Rachel, as if to say that the only thing ending is the scene.
There unfortunately aren’t enough open questions for viewers to ponder when Zlotowski does eventually (and repeatedly) black out the world for everyone but Rachel. There are some surprising asides and plot twists, as cinephiles will notice when American documentarian Frederick Wiseman appears as Rachel’s sonographer in two scenes.
Wiseman’s known for his unobtrusive, fly-on-the-wall style of documentary filmmaking, but here, he plays an older man who insists that if Rachel wants to have children of her own, the time is now. Wiseman’s character—of course, named “Wiseman”—also nods along with Rachel when she looks to him for reassurance.
When Rachel asks Wiseman how much time she has, he knowingly says: “I ask myself that question every morning.” And when she sighs that “life is short and long,” he agrees: “Yes, life is long.” We see Efira’s warm smile, shown in a tight close-up. Then another watery iris takes us out to the next scene, though not until Rachel, off-camera, thanks Wiseman. I don’t buy it, but maybe you could do with a little aggressive handholding.
In theaters today.
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